Mumbai: Queen's Necklace will now be adorned with flowers

After substituting sodium-vapour bulbs with LEDs, the BMC is now beautifying the divider and the lampposts with a variety of seasonal flowers

Mumbai’s famous Queen’s Necklace will now be adorned with flowers. After replacing the yellow sodium-vapour bulbs with white light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is now beautifying the divider and streetlights on Marine Drive with a variety of flowering plants.

The electric meter of every lamppost is being fitted with flowerpots. Pic/Atul Kamble

The civic body is planting diverse varieties of flora on the divider, and the 6 ft lampposts will be fitted with flowerpots with seasonal flowering plants. This beautification plan will be carried out for 150 lampposts from Trident Hotel to Wilson College. Almost a week back, the BMC started planting petunia plants on lampposts outside Marine Plaza Hotel.

BMC speakAdditional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas said, “We are conducting this beautification on a pilot basis at Marine Drive, which would then be replicated to cover all lampposts in the city.”

Explaining the beautification work, Srinivas said, “Every lamppost has its electric meter at the bottom and we are fitting the flower pots on it. The meter will not get damaged when we water the flower pots, as the meter is not affected even during heavy rainfall.

The civic body has taken permission from the BEST Undertaking (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport) for the beautification work.” The contractor for the project, RPS Infrastructure Ltd, said they have also placed a sponge at the bottom of every flowerpot so that it can store water for the plants for a few days.

A civic official from the road department said, “The entire beautification work of Marine Drive, including road improvement work and divider beautification, will be completed by December this year.”

Cutting costsIn January, BEST decided to replace the yellow sodium-vapour bulbs in street lamps on Marine Drive with white LED ones to reduce its electricity costs. The undertaking also looked at trimming the height of streetlight poles from the current 14.5 metres to 9 metres to cover a wider area and make optimum use of its lux level.

150Number of lampposts on Marine Drive on which the flowerpots will be fitted